After the body count from the Mexican cartel wars has ramped up over the last five years, there's finally beginning to be more consistent reporting on the subject available in the US, including in the blogosphere. Here are a few sources I've begun following recently to stay abreast of the topic:
And for the Spanish speakers among you (or those who don't mind fumbling around with Google's "translate" function), here are a few notable Spanish-language sources:
Combing through the blogs this morning, I ran across a story from March I'd missed at the time: An active-duty US soldier who'd signed on as an assassin for Los Zetas was shot by an undercover agent in Laredo. His cousin, who served in Afghanistan and was discharged from the Army on March 13, was among those arrested with him. This is yet another example of the real "spillover" violence on the Texas-Mexico border: US criminals crossing the river southward to commit murders and other crimes working as soldiers for competing drug cartels (warning: graphic images). By contrast, Texas border regions are among the safest in the state, particularly compared to the state's larger cities, and despite politicized misrepresentations, have not yet seen substantial violence "spillover" northward.
Grits can't follow these topics as closely as I would like, so I'm glad the bloggers above are covering the beat. With the Calderon military strategy an abject failure and the Mexican presidential elections looming this summer (a race made more or less interesting, depending on one's perspective, by a new ban on campaign attack ads), we're possibly at a pivotal moment in this epic tragedy.
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Mexico. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Mexico. Tampilkan semua postingan
Selasa, 10 April 2012
Jumat, 09 Maret 2012
Debating Texas' travel warning on Mexico: DPS should leave travel advisories to the State Department
Despite his self-interested subject position, I have to agree with the writer from the Mexican Tourism Board who criticized the Texas Department of Public Safety for a stern travel warning issued on Tuesday titled, bluntly, "DPS Advises Against Spring Break Travel to Mexico." Countering that sentiment, writes Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete in the Austin Statesman:
That said, when Houston recently posted its lowest murder rate in nearly five decades, Grits reminded celebrants that the record-low still left H-Town's murder rate higher than Mexico City's (9.4 per 100,000 compared to 8.3). The missus and I visited Mexico City last summer with a then-4-year old with no incident whatsoever, as is typical, and had a wonderful time.
Now, should vacationers be visiting Juarez, or for that matter, Acapulco? Probably not, though even in Acapulco the State Department says, "the popular tourist area of Diamante, just south of the city, has been less affected by violence." My own planned vacation in Mexico this summer has shifted from Veracruz to the Yucatan/Quintana Roo because of drug-related violence - perhaps being more careful than necessary, but why risk it?
So I certainly agree Americans should exercise caution visiting parts of Mexico (or Miami, or Chicago, or Houston, or LA), but the DPS travel advisory paints with too broad a brush. By contrast, the US State Department travel advisory offers a detailed, frequently updated state-by-state breakdown of which parts of Mexico to avoid and which are relatively safe. Most of the major spring break sites with the notable exceptions of Acapulco and Baja, appear OK. (MORE: Commenter Paul-UK supplies a link to the United Kingdom's travel advisory on Mexico.)
Mexico is an enormous place, not to mention one of the Texas' pivotal economic partners. DPS should stop this sort of politicized demagoguery - which seems aimed more at sucking away tourist dollars than promoting public safety - and tell anyone who asks about Mexican travel to check with the State Department.
Over the course of the next three months, Mexico will play host to a who's who of the world's most influential leaders.Lopez-Negrete does "not at all dispute the fact that there are parts of Mexico that are prone to violent incidents and are not currently safe for travel," though he may overstate things when he adds that "The same could be said of Austin, Houston or Dallas, for that matter." There is no place in Texas, or perhaps the world, outside a war zone, as violence prone as Juarez.
In April, the World Economic Forum on Latin America will take place in Puerto Vallarta. In May, leading tourism industry figures will converge on Cancún for the regional summit of the World Travel and Tourism Council. The culmination of this trifecta will take place in June, when leaders from the world's 20 largest economies will meet in Los Cabos for the annual meeting of the G20.
This hardly sounds like a place to be avoided en masse. Yet, this is precisely what the Texas government has urged its citizens to do in its most recent warning about travel to Mexico, released Tuesday and simply entitled, "DPS Advises Against Spring Break Travel to Mexico."
This warning paints Mexico with a massively broad brush, discounting nuance, logic and facts. Mexico remains Texas' No. 1 trading partner and largest export market — in other words we are "friends" and as such, are disappointed by this travel warning.
In 2011, 22.7 million international tourists visited Mexico (not including those who arrived by cruise line or border crossings), trumping our previous tourism record, set in 2008. Furthermore, Mexico continues to be the No. 1 destination for American travelers. The overwhelming majority of these tourists enjoyed our beautiful beach resorts, gastronomical delights and world-class cultural offerings without the slightest negative incidents.
That said, when Houston recently posted its lowest murder rate in nearly five decades, Grits reminded celebrants that the record-low still left H-Town's murder rate higher than Mexico City's (9.4 per 100,000 compared to 8.3). The missus and I visited Mexico City last summer with a then-4-year old with no incident whatsoever, as is typical, and had a wonderful time.
Now, should vacationers be visiting Juarez, or for that matter, Acapulco? Probably not, though even in Acapulco the State Department says, "the popular tourist area of Diamante, just south of the city, has been less affected by violence." My own planned vacation in Mexico this summer has shifted from Veracruz to the Yucatan/Quintana Roo because of drug-related violence - perhaps being more careful than necessary, but why risk it?
So I certainly agree Americans should exercise caution visiting parts of Mexico (or Miami, or Chicago, or Houston, or LA), but the DPS travel advisory paints with too broad a brush. By contrast, the US State Department travel advisory offers a detailed, frequently updated state-by-state breakdown of which parts of Mexico to avoid and which are relatively safe. Most of the major spring break sites with the notable exceptions of Acapulco and Baja, appear OK. (MORE: Commenter Paul-UK supplies a link to the United Kingdom's travel advisory on Mexico.)
Mexico is an enormous place, not to mention one of the Texas' pivotal economic partners. DPS should stop this sort of politicized demagoguery - which seems aimed more at sucking away tourist dollars than promoting public safety - and tell anyone who asks about Mexican travel to check with the State Department.
Senin, 27 Februari 2012
The newest toy in the box, part two: DPS deploying military-style gunships in Rio Grande
The Texas Department of Public Safety will soon deploy its own mini-navy along the Rio Grande consisting of gunboats armed with automatic weapons, according to KHOU-TV, which reported that:
There's also real potential for creating unnecessary problems, starting the first time somebody fires off those automatic weapons toward the Mexican side of the river.
"Send a message" is code for "just for show." Patrolling the Rio Grande in crafts outfitted like Swift Boats headed up the river in Vietnam won't make anyone any safer or reduce the availability of drugs in the US, but the boat sure looks cool pictured there in the newspaper, doesn't it? And I suppose for the troopers it's more interesting duty than making traffic stops.
next month it's about to launch its own fleet of gunboats.
"It sends a message: Don't mess with Texas," said Jose Rodriguez, Texas DPS Regional Commander.
The state is spending almost $3.5 million in tax money for six 34-foot gunboats, each which can operate in as little as two feet of water. The vessels are outfitted with automatic weapons and bulletproof shielding.
The state's first boat is scheduled to be launched next month to operate alongside the Border Patrol.Anytime someone in law enforcement says they're doing something to "send a message," much less in the same breath with the slogan "Don't Mess With Texas," that's a red flag for spending on worthless pork and PR-driven policing. The vast majority of contraband comes in through the checkpoints, not across the river. (According to a recent report by the Texas Border Coalition, "There is a mere 28 percent chance that a smuggler will get caught at the nation’s ports of entry, compared with a 90 percent of being detected between the ports of entry.") So why double down resources on the parts of the border - i.e., the stretches of river between the checkpoints - where smuggling has mostly been successfully restrained?
"One agency cannot do this alone," Rodriguez said.
The gunboats will be looking for suspicious scenes, like another one the DPS helicopter captured in December showing 10 men riding down the river and sitting on bundles of drugs that were no doubt destined for the U.S.
There's also real potential for creating unnecessary problems, starting the first time somebody fires off those automatic weapons toward the Mexican side of the river.
"Send a message" is code for "just for show." Patrolling the Rio Grande in crafts outfitted like Swift Boats headed up the river in Vietnam won't make anyone any safer or reduce the availability of drugs in the US, but the boat sure looks cool pictured there in the newspaper, doesn't it? And I suppose for the troopers it's more interesting duty than making traffic stops.
Senin, 20 Februari 2012
Mexico, Central American prison and jail problems make ours look petty
Just to keep Texas' prison and jail problems in perspective, in Honduras 358 or more inmates died last week in a prison fire, while yesterday in Monterrey, an affluent-business oriented town a two-hour drive from the Rio Grande, at least 44 were killed and guards were taken hostage during feuds between rival cartel members housed in the same facility. (According to the Austin Statesman, Los Zetas forces massacred prisoners associated with the Gulf Cartel "then staged a mass escape.") Indeed, for those keeping score at home, it's worth adding to the tally that in December 2010, prison officials helped 140 inmates escape through the front gate of a prison in Nuevo Laredo.
Texas prisons face much different challenges than Mexican or Central American ones. Ours mostly involve paying for the Legislature's mass-incarceration policies and preventing even more expensive prison building, with a little contraband-related corruption around the edges. But unlike in Mexico or, say, California, Texas has enough prison capacity (barely) to house the prisoners it incarcerates. By contrast, the facility which endured yesterday's riot in Monterrey was horribly overcrowded: "The prison, built to house some 1,700 inmates is jammed full with some 2,700 prisoners."
Meanwhile, the escape in Nuevo Laredo assisted by prison officials shows how corruption problems complicate all these other challenges. I don't know what prison-guard pay is in Mexico, but if it's anything like what Mexican cops receive, it isn't much. Mexican prison corruption, though, typically goes much deeper than just line staff.
As for the fire in Honduras, I've heard many a Texas Sheriff grouse about the Commission on Jail Standards flunking their facility's inspection over faulty sprinkler systems and fire alarms, which some (especially rural) jail administrators consider relatively petty violations. But when 358 people die locked up in jail as a fire consumes them, it doesn't seem so petty. And overcrowding played a role as well. Paul Kennedy picked up on the fact that "At the time of the fire there were 856 inmates in a facility designed to hold but 500. Even more appalling is the fact that more than half the inmates at the prison were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members."
This blog focuses on criminal-justice reform in Texas because I live here. But it's important to recognize things could be much, much worse and some of these annoying bureaucratic dicta and inefficiencies that prison and jail administrators complain about actually serve to make everybody much safer. Just look south to see what happens without them.
Texas prisons face much different challenges than Mexican or Central American ones. Ours mostly involve paying for the Legislature's mass-incarceration policies and preventing even more expensive prison building, with a little contraband-related corruption around the edges. But unlike in Mexico or, say, California, Texas has enough prison capacity (barely) to house the prisoners it incarcerates. By contrast, the facility which endured yesterday's riot in Monterrey was horribly overcrowded: "The prison, built to house some 1,700 inmates is jammed full with some 2,700 prisoners."
Meanwhile, the escape in Nuevo Laredo assisted by prison officials shows how corruption problems complicate all these other challenges. I don't know what prison-guard pay is in Mexico, but if it's anything like what Mexican cops receive, it isn't much. Mexican prison corruption, though, typically goes much deeper than just line staff.
As for the fire in Honduras, I've heard many a Texas Sheriff grouse about the Commission on Jail Standards flunking their facility's inspection over faulty sprinkler systems and fire alarms, which some (especially rural) jail administrators consider relatively petty violations. But when 358 people die locked up in jail as a fire consumes them, it doesn't seem so petty. And overcrowding played a role as well. Paul Kennedy picked up on the fact that "At the time of the fire there were 856 inmates in a facility designed to hold but 500. Even more appalling is the fact that more than half the inmates at the prison were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members."
This blog focuses on criminal-justice reform in Texas because I live here. But it's important to recognize things could be much, much worse and some of these annoying bureaucratic dicta and inefficiencies that prison and jail administrators complain about actually serve to make everybody much safer. Just look south to see what happens without them.
Selasa, 07 Februari 2012
Mexican presidential elections and border security
What makes the escalation of the drug war in northern Mexico so disoncerting - and also explains the impotence of the military and the federales to confront major drug cartels in that country - is that the fundamental causes of their sad situation are economic and political, not necessarily related to the success or (more often) failure of the justice system.
On the political side, high-level corruption defines this conflict in the eyes of many Mexicans I know. Under stewardship of the "PRI," which was the ruling party from the time of the revolution until 12 years ago, political favor doled out smuggling opportunities to various criminal organizations who, the theory goes, were allowed to operate in exchange for (relatively) low levels of violence. Once the PRI lost power, though, the infrastructure controlling the beast fell apart - first in Juarez and then Nuevo Laredo and beyond - corruption factionalized by region, and criminal gangs began openly competing for turf. By the time President Calderon sent the military in to take over security in northern Mexico, the government had become merely one of several competitors for political power. Think of it from a citizen's standpoint: If you want to remain safe, should you pay your taxes to the government or the criminal gang running a protection racket in your community? It's a non-trivial question.
On the economic front, NAFTA helped spawn a legitimate middle class in Mexico that didn't exist before, but it also depopulated rural areas, driving thousands of families, including many with relatively little education or skills, out of agriculture and into an urban proletariat where the country's legitimate economic base was ill-prepared to absorb them. Such desperate poverty and lack of opportunity, combined with rational personal security decisions, underlie the cost-benefit analysis of many Mexicans who side with the drug smugglers against the government (or else waffle tentatively in the middle, waiting to identify the likely victor). This story about the massive drought in northern Mexico - for which I almost feel guilty after the bout of rain we've had - makes me think the economic end of the equation may only get worse in the short term.
With military and police enforcement seemingly unable to stem the violence (it's declined in Juarez but expanded elsewhere in Mexico), and the Mexican public understandably opposed to direct US intervention, that pretty much leaves a poltiical solution as the only viable path forward for the troubled state. And that makes this summer's presidential elections in Mexico (replacing Calderon's successor for the next six years) more important for Texas' "border security," arguably, even than the US presidential race. In any event, the three-candidate field is now complete and it's a virtual guarantee any debates on "border security" will be more substantive and interesting than any we're seeing in the (endless?) GOP contest for US president, which should be refreshing in and of itself.
On the political side, high-level corruption defines this conflict in the eyes of many Mexicans I know. Under stewardship of the "PRI," which was the ruling party from the time of the revolution until 12 years ago, political favor doled out smuggling opportunities to various criminal organizations who, the theory goes, were allowed to operate in exchange for (relatively) low levels of violence. Once the PRI lost power, though, the infrastructure controlling the beast fell apart - first in Juarez and then Nuevo Laredo and beyond - corruption factionalized by region, and criminal gangs began openly competing for turf. By the time President Calderon sent the military in to take over security in northern Mexico, the government had become merely one of several competitors for political power. Think of it from a citizen's standpoint: If you want to remain safe, should you pay your taxes to the government or the criminal gang running a protection racket in your community? It's a non-trivial question.
On the economic front, NAFTA helped spawn a legitimate middle class in Mexico that didn't exist before, but it also depopulated rural areas, driving thousands of families, including many with relatively little education or skills, out of agriculture and into an urban proletariat where the country's legitimate economic base was ill-prepared to absorb them. Such desperate poverty and lack of opportunity, combined with rational personal security decisions, underlie the cost-benefit analysis of many Mexicans who side with the drug smugglers against the government (or else waffle tentatively in the middle, waiting to identify the likely victor). This story about the massive drought in northern Mexico - for which I almost feel guilty after the bout of rain we've had - makes me think the economic end of the equation may only get worse in the short term.
With military and police enforcement seemingly unable to stem the violence (it's declined in Juarez but expanded elsewhere in Mexico), and the Mexican public understandably opposed to direct US intervention, that pretty much leaves a poltiical solution as the only viable path forward for the troubled state. And that makes this summer's presidential elections in Mexico (replacing Calderon's successor for the next six years) more important for Texas' "border security," arguably, even than the US presidential race. In any event, the three-candidate field is now complete and it's a virtual guarantee any debates on "border security" will be more substantive and interesting than any we're seeing in the (endless?) GOP contest for US president, which should be refreshing in and of itself.
Jumat, 06 Januari 2012
On texting, driving, fact checking, murder rates, borderline competency and global security
A few, disparate tidbits:
Houston 2011 murder rate nearly as low as Mexico City
The murder rate in Houston is at its lowest since 1965, (and nearly the lowest since data began to be recorded), with 198 murders last year compared to a high of 701 in 1981, reported KUHF radio. Still, the murder rate of 9.4 per 100,000 is substantially higher than the statewide murder rate of 5.0 in 2010, according to DPS data (pdf). To put that number into perspective, Mexico City's murder rate is 8.3 per 100,000, so in that light 9.4 perhaps isn't exactly being all you can be. Still, Less Murders = Good. MORE: From Kuff.
After death, inquiry finds most youth at Granbury juvie detention in isolation for unjustified reasons
Now that the new Texas Juvenile Justice Department is up and running, there's no time to lose in exercising its oversight function. Reports the Weatherford Democrat, "A state investigation of the Granbury Regional Juvenile Justice Center following the death of a 14-year-old Cleburne boy in October has raised questions about the role of the facility’s non-compliance with detention facility standards in the boy’s death." Said the paper, a TJJD "report released last week found several violations related to keeping the juveniles in isolation nearly all day on Oct. 10 outside of the physical presence of a juvenile supervision officer. The 11 residents of 'Alpha Pod' were kept locked in their rooms most of the day, not allowed to participate in educational and other activities as required and left without the supervision level required during daytime program hours, the TJJD investigation found." Further, "Investigators found that only one of the 11 residents of 'Alpha Pod' was 'confined for a reason justified by standards, namely the resident’s disciplinary seclusion status.'" In other words, 10 of the 11 kids in isolation at the time of the boys death shouldn't have even been there.
Borderline competency: Good question, no easy answers
Asks a prosecutor on the DA Association user forum, "What do you do with those VERY low functioning defendants who are already receiving services from MHMR and whose competency is borderline?... Seems they are getting more plentiful." While one wag replied, "Send them off to law school?," others including John Bradley noted there are no easy answers, particularly in the wake of budget cuts to mental health services in the most recent legislative session.
Constable resigns in lieu of prosecution
The DA in Lubbock won't pursue criminal charges against a local constable in exchange for his resignation and lifetime ban from serving as a peace officer.
H-Town burglar alarm fees don't pay for city services
In Houston, according to HPD's website, "The cost of responding to alarm calls for service in FY2007 was approximately $11.8 million dollars and exceeded the City's total annual revenues in that fiscal year ($7.99 million dollars) derived from permit fees and penalties associated with burglar, panic, holdup and similar alarm systems."
Balko: Anger vs. Lykos stems from 'efforts to change the culture'
Radley Balko suggests that in the Harris County District Attorney primary, "intra-party anger seems to stem mostly from [Pat Lykos'] efforts to change the culture in the Harris County DA’s office." Exactly. There's an odd nostalgia among her most ardent critics which Grits suspects can never be satisfied. It's a new century, and whatever happens in April or November, Johnny Holmes won't be walking through the door anytime soon.
Problem with texting while driving is the driving, not the texting
Fascinating. Fewer teens are driving and studies say cars are no longer the status symbol of freedom that they once were among young Americans, particularly in cities. Texting while driving is bad, argues Lisa Hymas at Grist, but more importantly, "we need to work urgently on making driving less necessary in the first place." Great line from Clive Thompson at Wired: "When we worry about driving and texting, we assume that the most important thing the person is doing is piloting the car. But what if the most important thing they're doing is texting? How do we free them up so they can text without needing to worry about driving?" How's that for reframing the question? I'm still rather amazed that Gov. Perry vetoed the texting while driving ban passed in Texas this year.
Iran, Pakistan, Mexico, None-Of-The-Above: Which is biggest threat to world stability?
This is nuts to me: From any rational American perspective - certainly for those of us living in border states - the biggest threat to stability in 2012 isn't Iran, surely it's from drug violence and instability in Mexico and Latin America, arguably followed by anti-western sentiment in already-nuclear Pakistan, where our troops are entrenched across the border for the foreseeable future. In Grits' book, I'd put high food prices (at least) third on the list. Why downplay instability in a nation that already has nukes, much less massive corruption and bloodshed on the US southern border, to proclaim Iran the ultimate threat? That's the sort of demagoguery that makes people vote for Ron Paul. Which is more dangerous for world security: A nuclear Iran or a starving Africa?
Fact check this
Greg Marx at the Columbia Journalism Review has an essay articulating numerous criticisms which have been gelling in Grits' own mind in recent months about so-called "fact checking" services like Politifact and the limits of the framework under which they operate, particularly regarding legal issues. I finished his piece and thought, "Damn, I wish I'd written that," which of course is the highest compliment one writer can pay to another. My biggest frustration with Politifact, et. al.: Grits despises the notion that fact checking should be somehow considered specialty work among journalists, implying that most journalists are mere mouthpieces for special interests who don't provide a significant truth filter between their sources and the public. That may be accurate as a practical, workaday matter, but it's not a model to aspire to.
Houston 2011 murder rate nearly as low as Mexico City
The murder rate in Houston is at its lowest since 1965, (and nearly the lowest since data began to be recorded), with 198 murders last year compared to a high of 701 in 1981, reported KUHF radio. Still, the murder rate of 9.4 per 100,000 is substantially higher than the statewide murder rate of 5.0 in 2010, according to DPS data (pdf). To put that number into perspective, Mexico City's murder rate is 8.3 per 100,000, so in that light 9.4 perhaps isn't exactly being all you can be. Still, Less Murders = Good. MORE: From Kuff.
After death, inquiry finds most youth at Granbury juvie detention in isolation for unjustified reasons
Now that the new Texas Juvenile Justice Department is up and running, there's no time to lose in exercising its oversight function. Reports the Weatherford Democrat, "A state investigation of the Granbury Regional Juvenile Justice Center following the death of a 14-year-old Cleburne boy in October has raised questions about the role of the facility’s non-compliance with detention facility standards in the boy’s death." Said the paper, a TJJD "report released last week found several violations related to keeping the juveniles in isolation nearly all day on Oct. 10 outside of the physical presence of a juvenile supervision officer. The 11 residents of 'Alpha Pod' were kept locked in their rooms most of the day, not allowed to participate in educational and other activities as required and left without the supervision level required during daytime program hours, the TJJD investigation found." Further, "Investigators found that only one of the 11 residents of 'Alpha Pod' was 'confined for a reason justified by standards, namely the resident’s disciplinary seclusion status.'" In other words, 10 of the 11 kids in isolation at the time of the boys death shouldn't have even been there.
Borderline competency: Good question, no easy answers
Asks a prosecutor on the DA Association user forum, "What do you do with those VERY low functioning defendants who are already receiving services from MHMR and whose competency is borderline?... Seems they are getting more plentiful." While one wag replied, "Send them off to law school?," others including John Bradley noted there are no easy answers, particularly in the wake of budget cuts to mental health services in the most recent legislative session.
Constable resigns in lieu of prosecution
The DA in Lubbock won't pursue criminal charges against a local constable in exchange for his resignation and lifetime ban from serving as a peace officer.
H-Town burglar alarm fees don't pay for city services
In Houston, according to HPD's website, "The cost of responding to alarm calls for service in FY2007 was approximately $11.8 million dollars and exceeded the City's total annual revenues in that fiscal year ($7.99 million dollars) derived from permit fees and penalties associated with burglar, panic, holdup and similar alarm systems."
Balko: Anger vs. Lykos stems from 'efforts to change the culture'
Radley Balko suggests that in the Harris County District Attorney primary, "intra-party anger seems to stem mostly from [Pat Lykos'] efforts to change the culture in the Harris County DA’s office." Exactly. There's an odd nostalgia among her most ardent critics which Grits suspects can never be satisfied. It's a new century, and whatever happens in April or November, Johnny Holmes won't be walking through the door anytime soon.
Problem with texting while driving is the driving, not the texting
Fascinating. Fewer teens are driving and studies say cars are no longer the status symbol of freedom that they once were among young Americans, particularly in cities. Texting while driving is bad, argues Lisa Hymas at Grist, but more importantly, "we need to work urgently on making driving less necessary in the first place." Great line from Clive Thompson at Wired: "When we worry about driving and texting, we assume that the most important thing the person is doing is piloting the car. But what if the most important thing they're doing is texting? How do we free them up so they can text without needing to worry about driving?" How's that for reframing the question? I'm still rather amazed that Gov. Perry vetoed the texting while driving ban passed in Texas this year.
Iran, Pakistan, Mexico, None-Of-The-Above: Which is biggest threat to world stability?
This is nuts to me: From any rational American perspective - certainly for those of us living in border states - the biggest threat to stability in 2012 isn't Iran, surely it's from drug violence and instability in Mexico and Latin America, arguably followed by anti-western sentiment in already-nuclear Pakistan, where our troops are entrenched across the border for the foreseeable future. In Grits' book, I'd put high food prices (at least) third on the list. Why downplay instability in a nation that already has nukes, much less massive corruption and bloodshed on the US southern border, to proclaim Iran the ultimate threat? That's the sort of demagoguery that makes people vote for Ron Paul. Which is more dangerous for world security: A nuclear Iran or a starving Africa?
Fact check this
Greg Marx at the Columbia Journalism Review has an essay articulating numerous criticisms which have been gelling in Grits' own mind in recent months about so-called "fact checking" services like Politifact and the limits of the framework under which they operate, particularly regarding legal issues. I finished his piece and thought, "Damn, I wish I'd written that," which of course is the highest compliment one writer can pay to another. My biggest frustration with Politifact, et. al.: Grits despises the notion that fact checking should be somehow considered specialty work among journalists, implying that most journalists are mere mouthpieces for special interests who don't provide a significant truth filter between their sources and the public. That may be accurate as a practical, workaday matter, but it's not a model to aspire to.
Selasa, 03 Januari 2012
Poor Mexico: Reports from the cartel wars
A number of stories related to Mexican drug cartels and their relationship with US-side prison gangs, as well as other articles about US-side cartel infrastructure and organized crime in Mexico and Latin America, caught my attention over the holidays and may interest Grits readers:
- Houston Chronicle: Cartels cooperate with prison gangs
- Austin Statesman: Authorities work long hours to stamp out Mexican mafia
- Brownsville Herald: Prison gangs enforce brutal reign
- SA Express News: Prosecutors like RICO
- Huffington Post: Mexican drug cartels recruit young latinos in Southern California
- Catholic Online: Mexican drug cartels recruiting American teens
- Gant News Service: DEA: Mexican drug cartel extortion moving more into US
- McAllen Monitor: Gulf cartel lieutenant linked to various incidents on US side
- AP: Mexican cartels build own national radio system
- Wired: Radio Zeta: How Mexican drug cartels stay connected
- Global Post: Mexico police tortured suspects in Ciudad Juarez, human rights body says
- El Paso Times: Juarez forensic team a work in progress
- Honduras Weekly: Holding the United States accountable
Kamis, 22 Desember 2011
Investigate this: Export businesses play big role in cartel money laundering
Grits mentioned how pleased I was to see the Senate Criminal Justice Committee assigned money laundering as one of its interim charges (subjects they're assigned to study during the year between Texas' biennial sessions), and a Dec. 19 headline from the Los Angeles Times, "Cartels use legitimate trade to launder money, US, Mexico say," prompts me to suggest the committee consider focusing on the state's export sector as they investigate how money laundering occurs and what Texas-side facilitation the state might conceivably disrupt. This notable excerpt from the Times story captures the key mechanism to examine:
So exporting goods to Mexico is a key money laundering technique and Texas leads the other border states, by a wide margin, in exports to Mexico. In fact, Texas exports more, by dollar amount, than any other state.
For my part, I doubt that's a complete coincidence. Over the summer, Grits published a post titled, "The real secret behind Texas' economic boom: Drug trafficking." If I had it to do over I'd have put a question mark on the end of that title, since Texas' economic success is caused by a confluence of factors. But my main argument stands: That Texas' role as a drug distribution and money laundering hub funneled billions of dollars into the economy over the last decade, much of which propped up "legitimate" businesses laundering money for cartels. As I wrote then:
Examining the details arising from criminal cases is probably the best way to study how money laundering is occurring on the ground, and a significant number of those involve export businesses. Of all the examples I've heard of, though, one recent export-based money laundering scheme stands out above all others in Texas centered around the federal Ex-Im Bank. The story was well-covered for a time back in 2007 by reporter Byron Harris at WFAA in Dallas (but hardly anyone else) and Grits has written about it extensively. But somehow it never got traction the way Fast and Furious did; there were no Congressional hearings to investigate, and the people involved not only didn't lose their jobs but got promoted, while "reforms" resulted in only "voluntary guidelines" for lenders that did not forbid the same practices in the future. (Selling guns to cartels makes bigger ruckus, for whatever reason, than the government making nine-figure loans to drug runners that we never collect, or the DEA conspiring to launder their profits.)
The Ex-Im Bank is a federal agency that gives loans to businesses, including foreign companies, to purchase US exports. They made hundreds of millions in bad loans to Mexican companies during the Bush Administration, many of which went to non-existent front companies or outfits associated with drug cartels. Soon after the problems were discovered, and papered over, ironically, the chair of the Ex-Im Bank was named chief investment officer of the TARP fund that bailed out Wall Street. I'm only aware of one criminal prosecution stemming from the episode - a federal money laundering case (pdf) out of San Antonio that has now had time to play out.
To seriously tackle money laundering, then, the focus perhaps shouldn't be as much on suitcases of cash crossing checkpoints - a tactic that's already relatively well policed and less optimal for drug cartel liquidity - so much as crates of cargo leaving DFW Airport or in ships from the Port of Houston. Unlike investigations into drug smuggling, the Texas-side targets in money laundering schemes are more likely members of the local Chamber of Commerce, or else perhaps corporate or government bureaucrats, than tattooed gangbangers..
But will a "less government" Legislature be willing to proscribe, regulate or criminalize activities of seemingly legitimate export businesses, only a fraction of which engage in money laundering, in order to get to the bad eggs? For that matter, can a state regulate exports sufficiently to make a dent in the problem, or is that more properly and practically a federal role? Which reaches the even larger question: Besides southbound checkpoints aimed at seizing cash, what is the state role in investigation and prosecution of transnational money laundering? What can Texas do that the feds can't, or aren't doing? I suppose that's what the Senate Criminal Justice Committee will be discussing at the hearing on their interim charge.
Here's one way it works: Instead of smuggling the money the old-fashioned way, by simply carrying it south in bags and trucks, teams of money launderers working for cartels use dollars to purchase a commodity, and then export the commodity to Mexico or Colombia. Paperwork is generated that gives a patina of propriety. Drug money is given the appearance of legitimate proceeds from a trade transaction.The focus on goods exported to Mexico jumped out at me in particular because of another recent article, this one from Texas Monthly, on the causes of Texas' economic "miracle" which included this notable tidbit: "Of the $207 billion worth of goods Texas exported in 2010, more than a third were sold to Mexico, which adds up to an amount three times greater than those of our fellow border states (California, Arizona, and New Mexico) combined."
By turning their mountain of proceeds into tomatoes, say, or bolts of Chinese fabric shipped and resold in Mexico, cartels accomplish two goals at once: They transfer earnings back home to pay bills and buy new drug supplies while converting dollars to pesos in a transaction relatively easy to explain to authorities.
So exporting goods to Mexico is a key money laundering technique and Texas leads the other border states, by a wide margin, in exports to Mexico. In fact, Texas exports more, by dollar amount, than any other state.
For my part, I doubt that's a complete coincidence. Over the summer, Grits published a post titled, "The real secret behind Texas' economic boom: Drug trafficking." If I had it to do over I'd have put a question mark on the end of that title, since Texas' economic success is caused by a confluence of factors. But my main argument stands: That Texas' role as a drug distribution and money laundering hub funneled billions of dollars into the economy over the last decade, much of which propped up "legitimate" businesses laundering money for cartels. As I wrote then:
Not just cartels but also mid-level distributors set up front companies that lose money as a practical matter but serve as vehicles through which they can launder drug cash, making it a lot easier to distribute either back to Mexico or to other stakeholders in the US. This is happening today on a fairly widespread basis and it means a lot more marginal businesses stay afloat - how many, no one can tell - to perform what amount to retail-level money laundering functions.Adding the Times' analysis into the mix, it's a small leap to guess that many Texas businesses propped up by drug money are likely in the export business. As it turns out, reports the Times, dollars are harder to spend in Mexico these days than in the past, and cartels have a pressing need need to convert their holdings to pesos, for a variety of reasons discussed in the story. So bringing dollar bills across the border in a suitcase isn't good enough anymore. Thus the increased reliance on the export trade.
Examining the details arising from criminal cases is probably the best way to study how money laundering is occurring on the ground, and a significant number of those involve export businesses. Of all the examples I've heard of, though, one recent export-based money laundering scheme stands out above all others in Texas centered around the federal Ex-Im Bank. The story was well-covered for a time back in 2007 by reporter Byron Harris at WFAA in Dallas (but hardly anyone else) and Grits has written about it extensively. But somehow it never got traction the way Fast and Furious did; there were no Congressional hearings to investigate, and the people involved not only didn't lose their jobs but got promoted, while "reforms" resulted in only "voluntary guidelines" for lenders that did not forbid the same practices in the future. (Selling guns to cartels makes bigger ruckus, for whatever reason, than the government making nine-figure loans to drug runners that we never collect, or the DEA conspiring to launder their profits.)
The Ex-Im Bank is a federal agency that gives loans to businesses, including foreign companies, to purchase US exports. They made hundreds of millions in bad loans to Mexican companies during the Bush Administration, many of which went to non-existent front companies or outfits associated with drug cartels. Soon after the problems were discovered, and papered over, ironically, the chair of the Ex-Im Bank was named chief investment officer of the TARP fund that bailed out Wall Street. I'm only aware of one criminal prosecution stemming from the episode - a federal money laundering case (pdf) out of San Antonio that has now had time to play out.
To seriously tackle money laundering, then, the focus perhaps shouldn't be as much on suitcases of cash crossing checkpoints - a tactic that's already relatively well policed and less optimal for drug cartel liquidity - so much as crates of cargo leaving DFW Airport or in ships from the Port of Houston. Unlike investigations into drug smuggling, the Texas-side targets in money laundering schemes are more likely members of the local Chamber of Commerce, or else perhaps corporate or government bureaucrats, than tattooed gangbangers..
But will a "less government" Legislature be willing to proscribe, regulate or criminalize activities of seemingly legitimate export businesses, only a fraction of which engage in money laundering, in order to get to the bad eggs? For that matter, can a state regulate exports sufficiently to make a dent in the problem, or is that more properly and practically a federal role? Which reaches the even larger question: Besides southbound checkpoints aimed at seizing cash, what is the state role in investigation and prosecution of transnational money laundering? What can Texas do that the feds can't, or aren't doing? I suppose that's what the Senate Criminal Justice Committee will be discussing at the hearing on their interim charge.
Minggu, 27 November 2011
Roundup: Lightning strikes, news flashes, and principle ducks for cover
A few odds and ends for your holiday reading pleasure:
When lightning strikes
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley told the Dallas News that the Michael Morton DNA test results hit him like a "lightning bolt." Though they didn't invoke the road to Damascus, they did say the Williamson County DA now "testifies to a conversion." Declaring, “We need to leave the window open a little bit more,” Bradley says he hopes speaking up will influence how other prosecutors approach post-conviction DNA cases: “I finally decided that it was more important that I overcome my concerns about people’s opinions about my shifting of my personal opinions, because I saw that it has public value in helping other prosecutors, I hope, adjust their point of view.” Abel Reyna, are you listening?
Police, distracted driving and civil liability
Austin PD accounts for the largest proportion of payouts in civil suits of any city-owned department in the capital, including the electric utility and the airport. Chief Art Acevedo blamed distracted driving on a significant number of settlements related to automobile accidents involving police officers: “They're in the patrol car environment where there is a lot of things going on. You've got the computer going on, you've got the radio going on. They're looking where they're at. They're looking for violations, they're looking for risks.”
Spillover violence documented in Valley
Law enforcement reports the first, documented example of "spillover" cartel violence in the Rio Grande Valley, if you don't count gang members from the Texas side spilling over to commit violence in Mexico. This event is an important marker, but still a far cry from the absurdist, politicized claims made recently on behalf of Texas DPS and the Ag Department.
Drug violence in Puerto Rico
Lots of interesting detail in this story about which I wasn't aware; you never hear PR violence discussed in any of the "spillover" discussions.
News flash: Prison-industrial complex exists
Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg offers a "small apology" to his ideological foes, admitting to the existence of "a prison-industrial complex" he'd "long thought" didn't exist. He sees it as dominated by public-employees unions rather than private-prison companies and other such corporate-welfare recipients. For my part, I consider both special interests to be partially culpable for the situation, and many other elements besides. These are not mutually exclusive factors.
MSM scorns principle in criminal-justice debates
A frequent theme on this blog is that, despite how they're framed in the mainstream media, criminal-justice issues seldom fall along partisan nor strictly ideological lines. Nowhere can that be seen more clearly than in the LA Times headline, "Criminal defendants find an unlikely friend in Justice Scalia." The story by David Savage is fairly typical of modern MSM criminal-justice coverage, demonstrating many of its shortcomings all in one place. Notice how, for example, a judgment in favor of the defense (e.g., on Confrontation Clause issues) makes US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a "friend" to criminals. All nuance is lost: You're either for criminals or against them, though bizarrely the headline complains of Scalia, "For him, there are no shades of gray." That's the pot calling the kettle black, indeed. The newspaper quotes a law professor explaining, "This is not a left-right split. This is principle versus pragmatism" (though Grits would argue that some of Scalia's most controversial assertions on criminal justice have been profoundly pragmatic). But the issue is presented as though judges basing decisions on principle - as opposed to the convenience of government bureaucrats or the structural biases of the press - is somehow a bad thing. Perhaps, in light of the string of modern DNA exonerations and the lessons learned by John Bradley mentioned above in the top item, 21st-century journalists shouldn't be so quick to dismiss every effort to instill fairness or adhere to principle in the justice system as somehow coddling criminals? Just a thought.
When lightning strikes
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley told the Dallas News that the Michael Morton DNA test results hit him like a "lightning bolt." Though they didn't invoke the road to Damascus, they did say the Williamson County DA now "testifies to a conversion." Declaring, “We need to leave the window open a little bit more,” Bradley says he hopes speaking up will influence how other prosecutors approach post-conviction DNA cases: “I finally decided that it was more important that I overcome my concerns about people’s opinions about my shifting of my personal opinions, because I saw that it has public value in helping other prosecutors, I hope, adjust their point of view.” Abel Reyna, are you listening?
Police, distracted driving and civil liability
Austin PD accounts for the largest proportion of payouts in civil suits of any city-owned department in the capital, including the electric utility and the airport. Chief Art Acevedo blamed distracted driving on a significant number of settlements related to automobile accidents involving police officers: “They're in the patrol car environment where there is a lot of things going on. You've got the computer going on, you've got the radio going on. They're looking where they're at. They're looking for violations, they're looking for risks.”
Spillover violence documented in Valley
Law enforcement reports the first, documented example of "spillover" cartel violence in the Rio Grande Valley, if you don't count gang members from the Texas side spilling over to commit violence in Mexico. This event is an important marker, but still a far cry from the absurdist, politicized claims made recently on behalf of Texas DPS and the Ag Department.
Drug violence in Puerto Rico
Lots of interesting detail in this story about which I wasn't aware; you never hear PR violence discussed in any of the "spillover" discussions.
News flash: Prison-industrial complex exists
Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg offers a "small apology" to his ideological foes, admitting to the existence of "a prison-industrial complex" he'd "long thought" didn't exist. He sees it as dominated by public-employees unions rather than private-prison companies and other such corporate-welfare recipients. For my part, I consider both special interests to be partially culpable for the situation, and many other elements besides. These are not mutually exclusive factors.
MSM scorns principle in criminal-justice debates
A frequent theme on this blog is that, despite how they're framed in the mainstream media, criminal-justice issues seldom fall along partisan nor strictly ideological lines. Nowhere can that be seen more clearly than in the LA Times headline, "Criminal defendants find an unlikely friend in Justice Scalia." The story by David Savage is fairly typical of modern MSM criminal-justice coverage, demonstrating many of its shortcomings all in one place. Notice how, for example, a judgment in favor of the defense (e.g., on Confrontation Clause issues) makes US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a "friend" to criminals. All nuance is lost: You're either for criminals or against them, though bizarrely the headline complains of Scalia, "For him, there are no shades of gray." That's the pot calling the kettle black, indeed. The newspaper quotes a law professor explaining, "This is not a left-right split. This is principle versus pragmatism" (though Grits would argue that some of Scalia's most controversial assertions on criminal justice have been profoundly pragmatic). But the issue is presented as though judges basing decisions on principle - as opposed to the convenience of government bureaucrats or the structural biases of the press - is somehow a bad thing. Perhaps, in light of the string of modern DNA exonerations and the lessons learned by John Bradley mentioned above in the top item, 21st-century journalists shouldn't be so quick to dismiss every effort to instill fairness or adhere to principle in the justice system as somehow coddling criminals? Just a thought.
Rabu, 02 November 2011
DPS, border violence, and the boy who cried 'wolf'
Last month when two former generals issued a report (pdf) commissioned by Texas DPS and the Ag Department claiming massive rates of violence on the Texas side of the Rio Grande, Grits responded with a post titled "Lies, damn lies and border security rhetoric: New study aims to fabricate fear."
In a similar vein, yesterday the Austin Statesman definitively debunked that report, showing that border crime including murders has declined during the period that violence on the Mexico side of the river has surged. Indeed, because reality doesn't support the politicized claims of "spillover" border violence, DPS has begun keeping its own list that appears to overstate cartel involvement in Texas-side violence:
Regular readers know the real "spillover" violence along the border is in the other direction, with American gang members crossing the river to commit literally thousands of murders in Mexico. Border security presents real problems, but if we don't define them accurately it becomes impossible to craft effective solutions.
In a similar vein, yesterday the Austin Statesman definitively debunked that report, showing that border crime including murders has declined during the period that violence on the Mexico side of the river has surged. Indeed, because reality doesn't support the politicized claims of "spillover" border violence, DPS has begun keeping its own list that appears to overstate cartel involvement in Texas-side violence:
An American-Statesman analysis of all 14 counties that share a border with Mexico and two dozen border cities shows that violent crime along the Texas side of the Rio Grande fell 3.3 percent between 2006 and 2010.There's a "boy who cried 'wolf'" aspect to these sorts of claims, particularly after the Governor and DPS overstated crime fighting benefits of nine-figure border-security efforts like Operations "Linebacker" and "Wrangler." I'm glad to see the MSM calling them on it.
During the same period, the combined number of murders in the 14 counties fell 33 percent, to 73 in 2010 from 97 in 2006.
Further, most counties and cities situated directly across from the worst of the Mexican violence also saw their crime rates decrease, even as thousands were slaughtered on the Mexican side.
One reason for the gap between what state officials say and what the numbers show is that state agencies increasingly have moved away from using traditional statistics to describe the security situation along the border, and have instead begun using new categories of crime reporting that in some cases have raised questions about accuracy.
The Department of Public Safety, for example, has begun keeping a list of what it considers cartel-related killings in the state.
Yet two Austin-area murders on the list appear to have been caused by a fight over a cellphone, according to court records. The connection of murders in other parts of the state to cartel members have been questioned by border law enforcement chiefs as well.
Regular readers know the real "spillover" violence along the border is in the other direction, with American gang members crossing the river to commit literally thousands of murders in Mexico. Border security presents real problems, but if we don't define them accurately it becomes impossible to craft effective solutions.
Rabu, 12 Oktober 2011
Not buying story of Iranian links to drug cartels
The news story making waves that the Iranian government allegedly tried to have the Saudi Arabian ambassador assassinated on US soil strikes me as squirrelly and self-interested. Said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "The idea that they would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi ambassador? Nobody could make that up, right?" Well, nobody but government officials who rely on a lazy, compliant media to repeat their spin countless times before vetting the facts. (See Bruce Ivins' story, and Steven Hatfill's for classic illustrations, or since these charges could start a war, maybe the Gulf of Tonkin is a better example, or Bush II's claims that Iraq had chemical weapons.)
As it turns out, the suspects did not go to any "Mexican drug cartel" at all, but the case is based on a paid informant from Corpus Christi unaffiliated with any cartel who had state charges dropped in exchange for his services. In reality, the feds could have used an informant pretending to be from the Italian mob, the Crips, Bloods, you name it, since the only link to drug cartels is the cover story they fabricated.
Reported the Texas Tribune, the corporate intelligence service Stratfor says, "It seems unusual that the Iranians would approach a Mexican cartel to carry out the assassination, when the Iranians probably have the capability themselves," and that "at this point the cartels have not been directly linked to the plot."
Why would the Iranian government seek the Saudi ambassador's assassination, and if true, why would they choose to do it on American soil? It makes no sense. I don't yet know what to believe about these allegations, but one thing I know for sure: Only a fool would agree that "Nobody could make that up."
MORE: From Sylvia Longmire and Pete Guither. Amy Davidson at the New Yorker says one thing the story has going for it is an indictment. Read the full complaint here (pdf).
As it turns out, the suspects did not go to any "Mexican drug cartel" at all, but the case is based on a paid informant from Corpus Christi unaffiliated with any cartel who had state charges dropped in exchange for his services. In reality, the feds could have used an informant pretending to be from the Italian mob, the Crips, Bloods, you name it, since the only link to drug cartels is the cover story they fabricated.
Reported the Texas Tribune, the corporate intelligence service Stratfor says, "It seems unusual that the Iranians would approach a Mexican cartel to carry out the assassination, when the Iranians probably have the capability themselves," and that "at this point the cartels have not been directly linked to the plot."
Why would the Iranian government seek the Saudi ambassador's assassination, and if true, why would they choose to do it on American soil? It makes no sense. I don't yet know what to believe about these allegations, but one thing I know for sure: Only a fool would agree that "Nobody could make that up."
MORE: From Sylvia Longmire and Pete Guither. Amy Davidson at the New Yorker says one thing the story has going for it is an indictment. Read the full complaint here (pdf).
Senin, 03 Oktober 2011
Lies, damn lies and border security rhetoric: New study aims to fabricate fear
In order to justify massive amounts of border security pork and to bolster the Governor's anti-immigration bona fides, since 2006 the Governor and his former homeland security director Steve McCraw, who now leads the Department of Public Safety, have consistently overstated the amount of crime in border counties, raising the spurious specter of "spillover" violence from the cartel wars in Mexico onto the US side of the river.
In reality, any close observer of border realities knows that the real "spillover" of violence along the border is in the other direction, with Texas-based prison gangs like Barrio Azteca serving as soldiers and assassins for feuding drug cartels. In rare moments of candor, DPS officials have told the Legislature that in many cases "command and control" of cartel activity has shifted to the US side, with cartel leaders themselves seeking safety from the chaotic and violent environments south of the Rio Grande.
So I wasn't surprised to see that DPS and (for some reason) the Texas Ag Department teamed up to hire two big-name ex-generals, including former Clinton-era "Drug Czar" Barry McCaffrey, to perform an anecdote-driven security study (pdf) released last week which contradicts all available data about crime on the US side of the border to falsely claim that violence on the American side poses as great a threat as in Mexican border towns. Reported the Austin Statesman ("Report cites anecdotes to claim spillover violence," Sept. 27), despite claims by the generals that South Texas has become a war zone:
Anyone familiar with McCaffrey's record as Drug Czar won't be surprised by such fabrications. Indeed, as Drug Czar he was literally statutorily obligated to mislead the public about the drug war. Apparently old habits die hard.
In reality, any close observer of border realities knows that the real "spillover" of violence along the border is in the other direction, with Texas-based prison gangs like Barrio Azteca serving as soldiers and assassins for feuding drug cartels. In rare moments of candor, DPS officials have told the Legislature that in many cases "command and control" of cartel activity has shifted to the US side, with cartel leaders themselves seeking safety from the chaotic and violent environments south of the Rio Grande.
So I wasn't surprised to see that DPS and (for some reason) the Texas Ag Department teamed up to hire two big-name ex-generals, including former Clinton-era "Drug Czar" Barry McCaffrey, to perform an anecdote-driven security study (pdf) released last week which contradicts all available data about crime on the US side of the border to falsely claim that violence on the American side poses as great a threat as in Mexican border towns. Reported the Austin Statesman ("Report cites anecdotes to claim spillover violence," Sept. 27), despite claims by the generals that South Texas has become a war zone:
Federal crime statistics from cities and counties along the Southwest border have not shown spikes in violence, and last year the Congressional Research Service found that FBI statistics do not indicate whether there has been spillover from the violence raging in Mexico. Officials along the border have presented differing accounts of drug cartel-related violence.Indeed, the sourcing for the most serious allegations in the report turns out to be unbelievably sketchy:
During a news conference after the report was released, McCaffrey raised eyebrows when he spoke of "hundreds of people murdered on our side of the frontier," a statistic that far exceeded the 22 killings between January 2010 and May 2011 identified by the Department of Public Safety as being related to drug cartels. When asked about the number, McCaffrey pointed to statements from a Brooks County rancher, who told reporters that hundreds of bodies had been found in the county in recent years.So the bulk of US side deaths McCaffrey attributes to drug cartels a) stem from failed attempts at illegal immigration, not the drug war, and b) weren't actually murders according to law enforcement. Such obfuscations are regrettable if not surprising, as border security issues have become highly politicized. The Statesman reported:
Most of the bodies were those of illegal immigrants crossing the brush trying to avoid the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias and not victims of direct assaults, according to the Brooks County sheriff's department.
The issue of spillover violence has increasingly pitted Republican lawmakers and leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry, against President Barack Obama's administration.But since law enforcement sources support President Obama's interpretation of what's happening on the border instead of Rick Perry's, McCaffrey and Co. relied on anonymous sources that blatantly contradict the law-enforcement interests who've received tens of millions in border-security grants from the governor. Apparently those folks are credible when it comes to doling out pork, but are all fibbing when they report the number of murders in their jurisdictions. How much sense does that make?
"Our pleas for help are being met with denial and lame jokes," Texas Agriculture Secretary Todd Staples said Monday. "The threat grows more violent every day, and more resources are needed."
In May, Obama traveled to El Paso and declared the border more secure than ever, accusing Republicans of using the issue of border security to delay discussion of immigration reform.
"Maybe they'll say we need a moat," Obama said at the time. "Or alligators in the moat. They'll never be satisfied."
Earlier this month, Perry blasted Obama during a presidential debate as either having poor "intel" or being an "abject liar."
Anyone familiar with McCaffrey's record as Drug Czar won't be surprised by such fabrications. Indeed, as Drug Czar he was literally statutorily obligated to mislead the public about the drug war. Apparently old habits die hard.
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